42 injured in massive quake
A massive earthquake rocked Indonesia’s Sumatra island today injuring at least 42 people, damaging houses and causing residents to panic and run into the streets.
Indonesia’s Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said the quake was magnitude 5.3. However, Australian scientists said it was much stronger, registering 7.7, and capable of massive damage and loss of life.
The Hong Kong Observatory and the U.S. Geological Survey both recorded the quake at 7.5.
Seismologists in Singapore said there was a high risk of tidal waves caused by seismic activity in western Sumatra.
At least 42 people, including two women, one six-year-old girl and a man in a coma, were hospitalised on Simeulue island, 250 miles from Sumatra’s northern tip, Simeulue hospital chief Dr Hanif told The Associated Press.
“We fear that there are dozens more with even worse injuries. There are no roads on this island. It is very hard to get to the casualties,” said Hanif, who like many Indonesians uses one name only.
Four government buildings and dozens of shops were damaged, the island’s deputy government leader Ibnu Aban said.
“It’s about the same magnitude of the very destructive Gujarat quake in India two years ago,” which killed 13,000 people, said Mark Leonard of Geoscience Australia.
He said the quake was not likely to be as destructive though, as it was centred offshore. The US Geological Survey said on its website the quake was located 13 miles off the coast of northern Sumatra, and was 20.5 miles deep.
However, Indonesian seismologist Karyono said the quake – which struck the region at 0826am (0126 Irish time) – was centred onshore, about 20 miles north of Singkil town in Aceh, on the island of Sumatra.
Karyono, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, said the quake was centred in marsh land with no inhabitants.
“This is the strongest earthquake I have felt in the 60 years I have lived here,” said Suprapto Siswapranoto, a retired lawyer in Medan, a large city in northern Sumatra. ”My house is made of strong concrete and the pillars shook strongly.”
Tremors lasting several seconds were felt up to 300 miles to the northeast, in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, where people panicked and ran out of buildings, witnesses said.
Aceh province is about 1,100 miles northwest of Jakarta.
Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago nation, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire.”
